In the ultimate reality show, the Joker pits the Justice League against
the clock and against the Royal Flush Gang as the Justice League races
to find and disarm all the bombs he's planted along the Strip in Las
Vegas.

The real problem with "Wild Cards", the way I see it, was that it spent
45 minutes barely going anywhere... and then it suddenly started kicking
ass. "Only a Dream" had this problem, too, only to a lesser extent.

Sure, the first three-fourths had some cool features. The Flash actually
kicked some butt, despite taking some of the standard "Oh, he could have
dodged THAT!" hits. The Joker had some fantastic lines (and I loved him
not-quite-breaking the fourth wall). The Royal Flush Gang was
interesting, I thought using the Teen Titans cast was cute, and I
enjoyed the Batman Beyond music that played when they appeared. I liked
the Grandma at the slot machines. I also enjoyed how they kept us in the
dark about Ace's power, leaving us knowing all the while that something
was amiss. Very good stuff.

Oh, and the intro had me cracking up. I can't believe they went there. I
was watching with a friend of mine, and as the camera panned slowly up
the Watchtower with Hawkgirl's "Yeah... right there" dialogue, we
exchanged these "Oh my god" glances. Number 3,456 on the list of things
that Kids WB wouldn't have let them do...

Mainly, though, those first 45 minutes bored me. The reality TV bit got
old after a while, the clock became annoying, and the animation was
frequently very off (When Hawkgirl pumps GL's chest, there's no kind of
depression in his body or anything, just her hands moving). The fights
lacked intensity, and Harley felt totally extraneous, though I did love
seeing her. Her voice, most of the time, was fine, but periodically it
sounded really off. The episode was shaping up to be decent... like
"Hearts and Minds" or "Tabula Rasa". Pretty vanilla, really.

And then those last 15 minutes happened. Gorgeous hallucinations, a
chilling twist, a truly sadistic Batman/Joker fight, and Harley actually
doing something interesting. I was quite happy. This was all very cool.
I only hoped that there was enough time left for adequate GL/Hawkgirl
closure.

And boy, was I pleased.

I'll go on record as saying that design-wise, I've never found a DCAU
woman all that attractive (save maybe for BTAS Selina Kyle, who had a
very 1940's kind of appeal). I certainly didn't expect Hawkgirl to be
the first. And yet, she was drop-dead gorgeous. What a pleasant
surprise. There's something fundamentally wrong with it taking 30+
episodes for us too see her without a mask, but I'll overlook that. The
kiss scene was tender, adult, heartfelt, and genuine... at least, as
heartfelt and genuine as you get with this sort of thing. Really
satisfying stuff. I don't know what "Starcrossed" holds, but I hope they
don't totally kill off this relationship, because I like it.

I kinda wanted Hawkgirl to make better light of the "differences"
between her and John. "But I'm from another planet and I have wings on
my back!"

Oh, and the very end, with the old lady and the jackpot ("Finally!)".
F'ing brilliant. Really nice touch.